When the shaking stopped, the Ghost Fire went out, and the lights came back on, the carriage returned to calm. The pervasive sense of oppression disappeared, and the view outside the window returned to the normal, sunny fields.
"Is it... over?" someone asked, trembling.
Fang Zhitu did not answer. He leaned back in his seat, his face pale, and faint flames flickered in the veins under the skin of his right hand.
This happened so suddenly. Although the ghost has been temporarily suppressed, Fang Zhitu doesn't have Golden Container to imprison Fierce Ghost. What should he do?
Given enough time, this ghost might revive.
Or... should we just control this ghost? It's very powerful anyway; anyone who sees it will die.
The other passengers who had narrowly escaped death gradually calmed down. Although they were very curious about Fang Zhitu, this "superman" who could control fire, they did not dare to speak to him casually.
Because Fang Zhitu exudes an aura that inspires fear, disgust, and panic in the living, looking at him inexplicably gives one the feeling of facing a natural enemy.
The train's announcement suddenly came on. "Dear passengers, we are about to arrive at XX station. Passengers who wish to disembark, please..."
The mechanical, monotonous voice sounded so beautiful at that moment; everything seemed to have returned to normal, cell phone signals were back, and the flight attendants began frantically dealing with the bodies and the wounded.
As the police approached outside the car window, Fang Zhitu frowned slightly. He was in a hurry to seize the protagonist's future opportunities and had no time to deal with the authorities.
The matter of the Supernatural Revival has not yet been made public, and explaining it would be very troublesome and cause delays.
With this in mind, Fang Zhitu immediately attempted to activate the Ghost Domain.
The others in the carriage only saw a flash of green light disappear, and then Fang Zhitu vanished on the spot before their very eyes.
When the police arrived at the scene, they were so astonished by the sight of the dozen or so corpses piled up that their mouths were wide enough to fit an egg.
After learning a little about the situation, the police were even more shocked.
I'd only ever heard of supernatural events before, but now I've actually encountered one!
Even more outrageous, they actually happened to encounter a superhuman!
This is a huge matter; most people can't handle it, so it must be reported.
As for the superhuman who left early?
There's no need to worry about that. With tickets purchased under a real-name system, the person's background can be thoroughly investigated in no time.
Local police reported the paranormal events that occurred on the train to higher levels, but received no response whatsoever.
The situation in Jing City is not optimistic at this moment.
The agency responsible for handling paranormal events has been completely paralyzed, and even the director of the Investigation Bureau may have met with some mishap.
--In fact, Mu Linzhou is still alive.
The chaos in Jing City probably started with the livestreaming incident involving the internet celebrity streamer "Weapon A".
However, Cheng Linzhou did not receive any news about the live broadcast mishap because he went to bed early that night.
He always slept very well, and no one dared to disturb him.
Cheng Linzhou was awakened by a sudden chill the morning after the Weapon A live broadcast incident.
When he opened his eyes, the warmth of sleep still lingered in the bedroom, but the cold wind seeping in through the window cracks coiled around his ankles like an invisible snake.
He subconsciously reached for his phone on the bedside table—6:17 a. m., earlier than usual.
"Lin Ya?" He called his wife's name softly, but the spot beside him was empty, the bedding neatly folded to the side, as if no one had ever slept there.
Cheng Linzhou frowned, threw off the covers, got up, walked to the window, and prepared to draw back the curtains to let the morning light in, but stopped when his fingers touched the fabric.
Instead of the expected pale golden morning light, a thick darkness shone through the gap in the curtains.
A sense of foreboding arose within him, and he abruptly pulled back the curtains.
Outside the window, the whole world was shrouded in an unnatural black fog. It wasn't ordinary smog caused by environmental pollution, but a kind of almost liquid black, so thick it felt like you could cup it in your hands. The sky, the houses across the street, and the trees in the neighborhood all disappeared into this darkness.
Cheng Linzhou's fingertips touched the cold glass, and he suddenly had a strange feeling, as if the darkness outside the window was also touching him.
"What's going on?" he muttered to himself, taking out his phone to check the weather warnings, only to find that the signal bars were empty, the Wi-Fi icon was grayed out, and he couldn't make an emergency call.
Cheng Linzhou's heart began to race. As the newly appointed director of the Investigation Bureau, he had read through files on various supernatural events and had a certain understanding of such incidents.
In paranormal events, electronic and communication devices are easily affected and malfunction.
"Can I really be that unlucky?"
He quickly put on his bathrobe and decided to go downstairs to check the situation, deceiving himself into thinking that perhaps his wife Lin Ya and daughter Cheng Xiaoyu were already waiting for him in the dining room to have breakfast together.
The moment he pushed open the bedroom door, a strange feeling swept down his spine; the hallway seemed... to have grown longer?
Cheng Linzhou shook his head, banishing the absurd idea from his mind. This was his home, where he had lived for many years; he could walk through every corner with his eyes closed.
"Lin Ya? Xiao Yu?" His voice echoed in the empty corridor.
There was no response whatsoever.
Cheng Linzhou walked towards the stairs, but stopped when he stepped onto the first step. The scene below made his stomach clench – it wasn't the familiar lobby, but another staircase leading upwards, forming an impossible loop.
"This..." He took a step back and rubbed his eyes. When he looked again, the staircase had returned to normal, leading to the living room on the first floor.
"Ah, I'm just scaring myself~" Cheng Linzhou took a deep breath, repeatedly telling himself that it was just an illusion caused by the light.
He cautiously descended the stairs, counting the steps—thirteen, just like usual.
But when he reached the bottom and turned around, cold sweat immediately soaked his back. In front of him was not the living room, but a staircase leading to the basement.
"Impossible!" Cheng Linzhou turned to go back upstairs, only to find that the stairs behind him had turned downwards. He felt as if he were trapped in an upside-down Möbius Strip.
Fear began to gnaw at his reason, and he rushed to the nearest door—the study—and pushed it open violently.
Behind the door is Xiaoyu's bedroom.
Pink walls, scattered plush toys, and anime character stickers on the headboard, but Xiaoyu wasn't in the room.
Cheng Linzhou stepped out and pushed open the same door again.
This time it's the master bedroom's bathroom.
The third time I pushed open the door, it turned into a kitchen.
What's going on? Is there a spatial distortion?
Cheng Linzhou's breathing became rapid, and he felt dizzy. He had to hold onto the wall for support. The wall felt abnormally cold, as if it had been left in sub-zero temperatures for a long time.
"Lin Ya! Xiao Yu!" he shouted, his voice filled with unprecedented panic, "Where are you? Answer me!"
In the distance, a faint reply seemed to come from upstairs, "Old Cheng? We're here!"
It was Lin Ya's voice! Cheng Linzhou rushed towards the source of the sound, pushing open every door he passed: the dressing room, the guest room, the laundry room... Each door led to an unexpected space. Lin Ya's voice seemed to come from afar and then back again; sometimes it seemed to be right next door, but when he burst through the door, it turned into another unfamiliar room.
As Cheng Linzhou passed by his study for the third time, he noticed a note on his desk. He picked it up with trembling hands; it was written in Lin Ya's familiar handwriting:
"Old Cheng, if you see this, please stay calm. There's something wrong with the space in the house, and Xiaoyu and I are trying to find the exit. We heard your voice, but we can't meet you. I'm leaving a mark; follow the arrow." -- Lin Ya 7:15
Cheng Linzhou glanced at his watch—7:37. The note had been left more than twenty minutes ago. He looked around and found a small arrow drawn with lipstick on the door frame, pointing towards the depths of the corridor.
He followed the arrows, pushing open each marked door. Some of the rooms were ones he had never seen before, seemingly belonging to someone else's home; others were repeats, but with slightly different layouts.
In what appeared to be a storage room, he found a set of footprints left by Cheng Xiaoyu's slippers.
"Dad..." A faint voice came from behind a wall. Cheng Linzhou frantically pounded on the wall, searching for a hidden door or passage, but to no avail, and the voice disappeared again.
Time has lost its meaning.
Suddenly, his home turned into Infinite Maze. Cheng Linzhou felt hunger and thirst begin to torment him, but what was even more terrifying was the despair that gradually eroded his soul.
He tried to escape through the window, but every time he opened it, he either ended up in another room or inexplicable scene.
In a series of desperate attempts, Cheng Linzhou smashed the living room's French windows with a chair. Glass shards flew everywhere, but strangely, although the black fog outside was churning, it did not spread into the room at all.
It's as if... there's another supernatural force in Cheng Linzhou's home, resisting the black mist.
Cheng Linzhou peered through the broken window, and suddenly, a skull emerged from the black mist, its skeletal claws nearly grabbing him!
Cheng Linzhou was so startled that he retreated several steps. Fortunately, the skeleton stopped outside the window. Its claws were about to reach in through the broken glass, but it withdrew them as if it had been burned.
Cheng Linzhou was somewhat stunned. Could it be that his guess was correct? Was the unusual phenomenon of his house turning into a maze actually fighting against the black mist outside?
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Sometime in the afternoon—he guessed it was afternoon because no clock was working properly— Cheng Linzhou found a new note in the kitchen, the handwriting messy:
"Old Cheng, things are getting worse. Xiaoyu said she saw a strange 'Shadow Person,' and that the Shadow Person's back looks more and more like yours. I don't know what it is. We don't have much food at home, it won't last long. We tried to go to the garage, but even if we found the door, it wasn't outside, we couldn't get out. If you see this, go to the bathroom on the second floor, at least there's water there."
Cheng Linzhou's throat tightened. Shadow Person? He forced himself to calm down and searched for a way to the second floor.
But the stairs seemed to have a will of their own, sometimes leading to the third floor, sometimes back to the first floor. By the time he finally stumbled upon the right path by sheer luck, he had no idea how much time had passed.
When the bathroom door on the second floor was pushed open, Cheng Linzhou's blood almost froze. A large exclamation mark was drawn on the mirror with red lipstick, and below it were a few lines of small print:
"It's following us, the wall is moving! Old Cheng, I'm so scared, Xiaoyu keeps crying, she says the Shadow Person is watching her from inside the wall. We tried--"
The text abruptly ends here, the last few words leaving a long red trail, as if the writer had been suddenly dragged away, and there's a handprint on the corner of the mirror.
Cheng Linzhou's legs suddenly went limp, and he slid to the ground, leaning against the cold bathtub.
He recognized every single word on the mirror, but when put together, they were like a knife of despair, piercing his chest.
He had no time to grieve for his wife and daughter's misfortune; he was more preoccupied with lamenting his own bad luck.
A supernatural event happened in my own home!
He loved his wife and daughter very much, but he could remarry if his wife was gone, and he could have another daughter if his daughter was gone.
But once you die, you'll truly have nothing left!
Perhaps the strange occurrences at home began while he was fast asleep last night; his cell phone had no signal, and he couldn't receive any messages from the outside world.
He didn't know how long he had been sitting in the bathroom. Suddenly, he got up and started pounding on the wall, venting his unease until his knuckles bled. All he heard in response was a hollow echo.
In the time that followed, Cheng Linzhou wandered through the maze that had once been his home.
The room began to undergo even stranger changes—the furniture would disappear or move when he turned around; an unknown liquid would seep from the walls; sometimes he would hear clear footsteps following him, but when he turned around, there was nothing there.
As Cheng Linzhou passed through what should have been the living room, he witnessed an incredibly terrifying sight: on the opposite wall, there were three faint shadows, two large and one small, that looked remarkably like his own family of three.
He could faintly hear footsteps behind him; they sounded like his wife and daughter.
But are they really still the same people they used to be?
Cheng Linzhou dared not gamble.
He mechanically lifted his leg and moved from one room to another, avoiding the footsteps behind him.
People like Cheng Linzhou, who inexplicably encounter Supernatural events while staying at home, are widely distributed throughout Jing City.
By cutting off communication equipment and using different ghosts to trap the command department that issued the orders and the Action Department that carried them out, with no one to stop the situation from developing and no one to control public opinion, the situation will only get worse.
Initially, few believed that such a horrific disaster had occurred in Jing City. However, as time passed, the official media remained silent, more and more photos and videos circulated online, and there were also testimonies from the lucky Lucky One who managed to escape Jing City...
Everything is proving one fact, a fact that no one wants to see.
The only saving grace is that this terrible situation isn't unique to China; other countries are facing similarly dire circumstances.
The White House has become Haunted House and keeps releasing ghosts; London is surrounded by vampires; Tokyo is filled with the stench of human heads...
No country was spared.
This is the real... apocalypse!